had known about its construction since it had happened so late in the war that our forces had been mostly scattered all over. It had been omitted from the treaty for that very reason—I’d only remembered it just then, and I’d spent the better part of my adult life fighting beside my prince in the war around those very mountains. It was unlikely the diplomats at court had even heard of its existence; certainly, Iseul would not have been the one to alert them to it.
But General Yisun, who had spent so much time in these mountains many jested he’d become its guardian deity, had every reason to know of its existence. I had no real way of knowing the way was safe. What was worse, I had no better options left to me.
I hated to take my lord into uncertain territory, a place where I might not be able to protect him, but it seemed that we had little choice in the matter.
In the stories that my father told me of the old magic, a bond forged by fever would allow Iseul to know what Mamoru knew and see what he saw.
We would simply have to outride him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ALCIBIADES
Lord Temur was no longer asleep in my bed.
In point of fact, he was awake in my bed, and staring at me like I’d taken leave of my senses, which, all things considered, I probably had.
We were at an impasse, like two opposite forces on either side of the same bridge, and neither side willing to give an inch of ground, and each with death firm in his jaw and hard in his eyes. We were enemies now, and we always had been, and, what was worse, both of us had done something that went against our codes of honor as men and as soldiers, and being Ke-Han or Volstovic had neither hide nor hair to do with it.
We might have hated each other, but, what was worse was that we hated what we’d done to each other, and we hated that we each knew what we’d done.
It wasn’t honorable behavior.
We were no longer honorable men.
That wasn’t the kind of thing that bothered Caius, of course, who’d told Josette and me—after we’d dragged Temur back through the hallways, limp as a sack of uncooked dumplings—that he had a headache and needed to lie down for a bit, so could I please look after the helpful lord until he awoke?
“I’ll spot your shift,” Josette said. “But right now I have to talk to Fiacre.”
“Right,” I said.
“And I think I’ll be better at explaining things to him than you will be,” she added.
“Right,” I agreed.
And that’s what left me on guard duty, sitting at Lord Temur’s bedside like some kind of lovesick admirer, instead of a man who’d just violated everything sacred and true about the peace between our two countries, and indeed peace itself. The only thing keeping me from going mad from shame was knowing that he and his Emperor were no better than we’d been—but that still didn’t justify what I’d done. Or what I’d helped Caius do. Or anything. Everything.
“Lord Greylace is indeed quite talented,” Temur said. “I have never had the opportunity to see one of your—what is it? Ah yes, velikaia—I have never had the opportunity to see one of your velikaia in action. I thought I might never have the opportunity, given the peace, but I am glad that at least I have been favored in one of my more anomalous requests.”
I didn’t even know what “anomalous” meant—it sounded filthy, if I was being honest—and it was a word in my own damned language. I grunted, just to show him I meant business and wasn’t into idle chatter with just anyone, mind.
“You are lucky to have him as a friend,” Temur continued, his eyes fluttering shut. “It is not in a Ke-Han warrior’s nature to complain, but my head feels like a broken egg.”
Or a shattered dome, I thought. Not my finest moment, I’d be the first to admit. “He’s not my friend,” I protested, out of habit.
“Is that so?” Temur replied. “Hm.”
Things were real quiet and real awkward for a long time after that, and I wished that Josette was around because she knew how to talk to these people, and to people in general, and I just didn’t. Even having Caius would have been preferable, because he would have started talking about the cuisine or the jacket Lord Temur was wearing while we broke